Startup Founders Make Strange Supermodels

With the blockbuster popularity of The Social Network, it's not hard to see why Madison Avenue would want to capitalize on the public's voyeuristic tendencies for startup founders. In fact, some of them do a pretty good job on the other side of the camera. Uniqlo is opening a new flagship store across the street from Macy's in midtown Manhattan, and they want everybody to know that they know what's cool in New York City. What better way to do this than feature a baker's dozen of cool-looking "New York Faces"? The flashy website has links to their Facebook profiles, Google Maps of their favorite bar and links to other cool things--kind of like a Tumblr. Well, it also features the guy who invented Tumblr.

David Karp, Found of Tumblr
Wearing a warm-looking sweater and plaid flannel combo--an odd choice for August--David Karp discusses Facebook, "creative expression," and his mentors in a video for Uniqlo. He's two years younger than Mark Zuckerberg, by the way.

Josh Rubin, Founder of Coolhunting.com
Also posing for Uniqlo, designer and visionary Josh Rubin "believes that there are no new ideas, just great executions." It makes sense then that he's showing off the classic, all black hoodies, jacket, jeans and t-shirt combo.

Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai, Founders of Foursquare
The two original startup founder supermodels appeared in a November Gap campaign in order to promote CampInteractive, a charity Crowley and Selvadurai support. Despite the good intentions, the extent to which other tech industry folks made fun of them for that pose, however, should not be underestimated.

Biz Stone, Founder of Twitter
This one is a little bit weird. Biz Stone has a conversation with himself in a Stoli vodka commercial, and then lots of pretty girls take notice. Advertising executives take note: weird ads often go viral.